Definition
Delegates met in secret at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Every state except Rhode Island took part, and fifty-five men attended over the summer, most of them wealthy lawyers, merchants or planters, with George Washington presiding. The Confederation Congress had called the meeting only to revise the Articles of Confederation, but the delegates started from James Madison's Virginia Plan and wrote a new constitution instead. After compromises over representation, slavery and trade, thirty-nine delegates signed it on September 17, while three who were present, George Mason, Elbridge Gerry and Edmund Randolph, refused.
Why it matters on the AP exam
Questions ask students to explain the compromises that made the Constitution possible: the Great Compromise on representation, the Three-Fifths Compromise and the 1808 slave-trade clause on slavery, and the bargain between North and South over trade laws. The delegates went beyond what Congress had authorized, replacing the Articles of Confederation instead of revising them. On causes, questions point to the weakness of Congress under the Articles, shown by Shays's Rebellion, and to Enlightenment ideas about dividing power, especially Montesquieu's. A common mistake is to credit the Convention with the Bill of Rights, which it voted down; the First Congress proposed those amendments in 1789.
In the sources
“for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation”
Connections
- Virginia Plan: Madison's plan, presented May 29, set the agenda for the debate
- Great Compromise: settled the dispute between large and small states over representation on July 16
- Three-Fifths Compromise: decided how enslaved people counted for House seats and direct taxes
- Ratification of the Constitution: the state conventions that followed, with nine states needed to approve
Study it in context
Topic 3.8: The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification Watch this part